*shrugs* Maybe, maybe not. I prefer to take people at face value until they show beyond a doubt that they actually have ulterior motives. Call it remnants of my Christian charity. I genuinely asked (of myself) the very same questions that the OP is asking here, and...Here I am. Whether or not I'm a troll...Well, I guess that's up to you.

In any case, even if the OP is trolling, there could very well be people in complete earnest who will read the thread now or in the future and who might get something out of it. IMO, it never hurts to share information.

I personally don't find it easier or the pleasure of digging up in old pages to find this threads. I usually start a thread for my questions. I wouldn't go to call this guy a troll, because he does seem to bring genuine answerable threads. Best approach to guide and link the person to these threads oppose to telling him to scram or just answer the person's questions in informative way.

Ah, a fellow optimist! *high five*

Same here. I usually am a "benefit of the doubt" type of person. But you know the saying "fool me once..."

As I said in post 2, it always does. Over and over and over and over. And attempts at conversion are normally a failure. I do think that is in part to my post above, that control people will generally prefer 2 over 3. And unless personalities change those preferences will not. And as said, either is OK so why debate for 10 years plus?

I don't know that I'd call it optimism, exactly. Being old and world-weary, I am actually more on the jaded and cynical side, in general. But online it's harder to get a "read" on people, without being able to see their face or hear their voice. So, like I said, unless/until someone's being an obvious asshole, I give them the benefit of the doubt. So call me an "online optimist," I guess! "Fool me once" does apply, though; I'm one of those who forgives but NEVER forgets.



Who's debating, though? Let's assume for the sake of argument that OP isn't a disingenuous troll. Let's assume that they asked an earnest question, looking for suggestions as to how they, as a TS2 player, can better enjoy TS3, perhaps because they know TS2 has a limited shelf life at this point. You can't really ask such a question without also saying why you like TS2 and how you like to play it. Some of us took OP at face value and answered with some suggestions. I'm not seeing any debate, at least not on this thread. Mostly I see people saying that if you're a control freak and can't let go of that, you're better off with TS2, which is something I agree with, totally. Different games suit different people for different reasons; it's silly to think otherwise. And while there may be hundreds of similar threads here, given how much threadcromancy is frowned upon around here, I can't really blame people for starting new threads. Nor can I blame them for not really wanting to dig through pages and pages of threads to find answers to whatever questions they have, not to mention the fact that people come and go. Someone in a new thread might have something different to say, something that's not been said 1000 times before.

No need for anyone to get their panties in a twist so long as fightin' words are being slung around, is all I'm saying. If someone would rather not contribute to the discussion then...just don't.



I gotta ask how big your worlds are. I mean, not just in terms of physical size but in terms of population and...population density, I guess? And how much time you've spent playing it/them? The reason I ask is I haven't encountered Error 12 since I've played TS3 on a computer with a 64-bit operating system, thus making LAA possible. I haven't even gotten close, even when I've gone on jags of playing for 12 hours straight. (Stupid insomnia!) That being said, I keep my worlds small and my populations spread out over multiple Traveler-linked worlds. Since the game only simulates one of those linked worlds at a time, there's less RAM-chewing going on at any given time. I know playing that way wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea. I imagine that most TS3 players like all their Sims in one world so they always have opportunities to easily interact and all that, but for me it makes it "feel" a little more like TS2 while still retaining all of TS3's gameplay, so for me it's a good balance. I also know that some people like playing big cities, which I just hate. (Both IRL AND in-game! ) But I dunno, I would think there'd be something you could do to lighten the load, so to speak.

Well, lots of people don't really tend to make a distinction, but you don't really have to be that way with everything to be an optimist. I'm what some might call a social optimist. I try to find the good in everyone until they give me a reason not to trust them anymore. Some push it as being too naive, but honestly all of the fighting and unnecessary bickering one can see every day, if that means I'm a little naive to think otherwise, so be it.

I'm actually very pessimistic in other ways, lol. With myself especially.

Ah, yes, I can see where your problem is now. Like I said, I stick to small, mostly rural/nature-y settings, which is what I like better anyway. It has the added benefit of being kinder to my poor old Simming computer, too. Often, I play only fairy sims in them, and they don't even need houses. They don't even really need residential lots. Just fairy houses scattered about and something to use for bathroom purposes. Even if it's not fairies, I like a lot of nature and open space and no high-rises in my worlds. I grew up on a farm in Indiana, but I lived in NYC while going to music school and for a number of years after I finished my master's there and...I've had enough of big cities to last me three lifetimes. I don't even want to look at them in a game. So, even in my biggest, most heavily-populated non-fairy world that's starting Gen 3 with my playable family, in a medium-size world that's fully built/furnished (Enekjaer), the game is using at most 2.5GB. When saving it'll spike up a bit, of course, but it tends to hover around 2.5. Unless I'm on one of those day-long playing jags, of course, where I have to exit and reload the game at least once even when playing my light fairy worlds where RAM usage is around usually around 1.5GB or so.

Yeah, rabbitholes are definitely better than open lots, especially in large, populous worlds. If I'm doing some ground-up building, I generally use the rabbit hole rugs. Plop down a big lot, build a bunch of little structures just large enough for Sims to use the rugs without getting stuck, and call it a day. I can do this since I prefer less-developed worlds. A city hall that looks like an old Federal-style city hall wouldn't fit in at all. Or if I'm playing a future-y scenario, as I sometimes do, I'll use the RHs that came with Lunar Lakes, plus some matching custom ones I have that represent the RHs that came with later EPs. You can fit a lot of them on one large lot, too. It doesn't look very pretty, but I'm not the type to sit and stare at rabbitholes, anyway. *shrug*

So TS3 family trees are infinitely long? I did not know that. I guess I just assumed it'd be like TS2 and a Sim wouldn't recognize their great-grandparents as family. Now that I think about it, I suppose it makes a certain amount of sense, in that Sims never really die in TS3, given the whole playable ghost thing, but....Wow, they didn't put much thought into that, did they? Thanks for the heads-up.

I use a lot of mods in my games to make them more fun. I use nraas, substance mods, custom content clothes and skin tones. But mods can't make the game itself all that fun so I recommend using a show or movie to guide some storylines for your game. I usually edit sims in my town to be more attractive or more interesting. Using nraas master controller, you can make any sim active, so although story progression isnt as good as sims 2, you can progress the story for yourself. I hope this is a bit helpful

Is there such a mod really? I usually use the MC command "make active" on a sim and that changes the active household pretty quickly. Maybe the OP meant this feature?

I totally agree about the houses and actually any lots. As I have said many times I play totally legacy style when I play. And I love to build. For every town I have played I have touched/checked every lot. Many of the houses are/become just shells for show and many are changed to have just enough for some Sims to move in as I do not play any of them. And if I download some lot that is pretty darn cool and I want to keep it, I still go through it and delete most of the clutter, they all lose electronics, I delete cabinets, probably one third to half of the furnishings, excess IMO bushes, etc. This is what I have done for years and it works for me. My game runs beautifully and I have not had an error 12 in many years. I keep it as lean as I can and have in only what I want/need.

I also convert everything that can be converted to packages. They are sorted into modern, traditional, etc. So if I am playing a modern world I put that CC in the game and not all the other I have. And traditional for a traditional hood, etc. I have only in my game what is needed at that time.

I thank you for taking the time to write all of this, I have read it through and I will follow what you have said. I think this should help with the other links that people in the thread posted. By the way peoples, I am not "trolling" or anything like that, I don't even post that much on these forums

Jathom95 already answered this further up. The NRaas mod that allows for fast switching between households with a simple right-click on a sim is Selector.

Selector is useful for other reasons, it is like an ErrorTrap for sim and object clicking, but I cannot stand the fast switch feature. I use right-clicks to refocus the game camera throughout play and find myself switching households often when I don't mean to be. But other players like it and it's a mod option that can just be switched on or off.

PortraitPanel also offers a fast switching option, for those who prefer that method by way of keeping inactive sims on the panel.

Both MasterController and StoryProgression offer their own ways to switch active households, the difference being that these two allow us to control when such a switch is Dream Catching or not. Selector and PortraitPanel switches are always Dream Catching. Why this distinction is important is probably better left for a different discussion.